LaLiga set for more traditional, northern look as Racing, Deportivo and Málaga return | OneFootball

RFEF and LaLiga meet 40 Primera and Segunda clubs on Monday, with the fixture calendar on Tuesday. Pre-season starts in the first week of July.

According to Diario Vasco, Oviedo, Girona and Mallorca are relegated, while Racing, Deportivo and Málaga return, and Real Sociedad and Celta will have dual representation via Sanse and Celta Fortuna in the Liga Hypermotion.

Racing return after 14 years, last in 11/12, and will aim to stay up. Their last meeting with La Real was the 2014 Copa quarter-final, when Racing refused to play in protest.

Deportivo and Málaga also rose, one via automatic promotion and the other through the play-off. Both were last in Primera in 17/18 and, with youth-led projects, face a fight to stay up.

The north now boasts nine clubs, restoring Cantabria and adding a second in Galicia. They are Celta, Deportivo, Racing, Real Sociedad, Athletic, Alavés, Osasuna, Espanyol and Barcelona, while Asturias again have none.

Five autonomous communities house 15 of the 20 teams, accounting for 75% of fixtures.

There are no top-flight sides from nine other regions or the autonomous cities, and for the first time since 1996 there are no island teams, so La Real avoid trips to the Balearics and Canaries.

On the pitch, Pellegrino Matarazzo’s side must recover league consistency after lifting the Copa at La Cartuja. They conceded 61 goals, the most in the division, and finished 10th with 46 points, the same tally as two seasons earlier when they were 11th.

Source: Diario Vasco